‘Pandemic’ Scientist Says His Team May Have Found A Cure For COVID-19

Dr. Jacob Glanville, one of the doctors on the Netflix series “Pandemic,” says his team may have found antibodies which they believe could treat COVID-19.

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Dr. Glanville made the announcement on Twitter on Monday. He spoke with Radio New Zealand saying the development is imminent.

"I'm happy to report that my team has successfully taken five antibodies that back in 2002 were determined to bind and neutralise, block and stop the SARS virus," Dr Glanville told Checkpoint RNZ.

"We've evolved them in our laboratory, so now they very vigorously block and stop the SARS-CoV-2 [Covid-19] virus as well."

Glanville said his team has been in communication with the U.S. government about conducting a study about the drugs usefelness.

“Part of the reason we think we’re moving pretty fast is that instead of starting from scratch discovering an antibody, we went to these existing antibodies that were already extremely well characterised against SARS. And we’ve adapted them. So we’re piggybacking on two years of research,” Glanville said.

As for how his treatment would respond in a COVID-19-positive patient Glanville says that the treatment would work in minutes.

"It's sort of like a short-term vaccine, except it works immediately," Glanville said. "A vaccine could take six to eight weeks to take effect, where this will take effect within 20 minutes. You could give it to a patient who's sick, experiencing Covid-19, then within 20 minutes of receiving the shot, their body is flooded with those antibodies."

He says his team has partnered with 2 companies to scale up production of the drug once it is approved, and would begin human trials at the end of summer.

If the drug is safe, Glanville said it could begin to be released in September.